


Tough Love

by 0JokingAround



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Caring, Comfort, Crying, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Papyrus (Undertale) Needs a Hug, Papyrus-centric, Sad Papyrus (Undertale), Tough Love, bad day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 15:44:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13720836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0JokingAround/pseuds/0JokingAround
Summary: He hoped that by having his friends around it would cheer him up a bit. Spending time with friends or any sort of company at all always made him happy, but this time ...it didn’t.Not even a little.





	Tough Love

**Author's Note:**

> Ut Papyrus- Papyrus- Normal  
> UF Papyrus- Edge- ALL CAPS  
> SF Papyrus- Slim- lowercase

"is...something wrong?"

Papyrus jumped a bit in his seat before looking at the owner of the sudden voice that scared him out of his thoughts.

He put on his best smile."Wrong? Whatever could you mean, Slim?"

"DON’T PLAY DUMB WITH US, PAPYRUS. OBVIOUSLY, THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG."

Papyrus looked at Edge, his smile faltering a little."Nothing’s wrong. What could possibly be wrong?"

"i don’t know, you tell us. that’s why I asked."

Papyrus turned his head back at Slim, while clenching and unclenching his gloved hands."N-Nothing! There’s nothing wrong."

"YOU’RE STUTTERING."

Papyrus’ smile twitched when he turned his head to look at Edge. He was starting to feel dizzy."N-No I’m-,"Papyrus cleared his throat."No I’m not!"He clenched his gloved hands again.

"you’re doing that thing with your hands whenever you’re nervous."

Papyrus unclenched his gloved hands and folded them tightly on his lap."No I’m not."He said with a slight crack in his voice, starting to see little black dots in his vision when he turned his head too fast to look at Slim.

The sudden sound of a growl startled him as he quickly looked at Edge before the black dots in his vision grew bigger. He felt so dizzy now. His head was starting to hurt.

"WIPE THAT FAKE SMILE OFF YOUR FACE."Edge growled out to him and Papyrus couldn’t help but do just that. He almost felt kind of relieved when he stopped smiling, but he wasn’t sure why."AND STOP LYING TO US. YOU’RE A TERRIBLE LIAR. SOMETHING. IS. WRONG."Edge said, his voice growing more aggressive with each word.

"yeah, and stop pretending. you’re awful at that, too."

Papyrus looked down at his clasped, gloved hands and felt tears stinging his eye sockets. They were right. He knew they were right. He couldn’t lie to them. He couldn’t pretend like everything was alright.

Because it wasn’t.

He sniffles a bit and watched his tears drop on his gloves and soak into the red fabric. He clenched his gloved hands until it hurt and closed his eye sockets tightly. His shoulders shook a bit as he tried to speak, but ended up hiccuping instead.

He felt so ashamed. Lying to his friends...pretending to be happy when he didn’t feel like it...he was such an awful friend.

He didn’t even expect them to visit him and his brothers’ house. He didn’t even want them to stay, and he was glad Sans wasn’t going to be home until dinner. He just wanted to...be alone, if only for a little while. But what kind of friend would he have been if he just told them to leave? That would’ve been rude.

He hoped that by having his friends around it would cheer him up a bit. Spending time with friends or any sort of company at all always made him happy, but this time ...it didn’t.

Not even a little.

He tried to put up his best smile and act all cheery in front of them, but he knew his smile didn’t meet his eye sockets, and his voice sounded off. He couldn’t fool them, and now he was the one who looked like a fool for even trying.

He was an awful friend and an awful host.

He wouldn’t blame his friends if they thought poorly of him now.

They probably did, because they weren’t even trying to comfort him. He probably didn’t deserved it anyways. It was a suitable punishment for lying to them and acting like he was okay.

He wasn’t.

Even if he did deserve it, would they comfort him? Did they care enough to do that? Slim and Edge weren’t exactly...the caring type. According to their brothers, they were. From what Red and Razz told him, they have their own...special way of showing that they cared, or how they care for others.

Papyrus can’t name a time he’s ever seen their special way of caring before, or ever experienced it. He wasn’t quite sure what it was, either.

They told him this special type of caring, but he couldn’t recall it now.

His head hurt too much to remember now.

"...bad day?"

Papyrus sniffled a bit and tried to look at Slim, but his vision was blurry with tears. He couldn’t see Slim’s face, but if his voice was anything to go by...

Slim was unamused.

Papyrus gulped. There was no point in pretending.

No point in lying.

“Y-Yeah.”

“WHY?”

Papyrus turned his head to look at Edge, but couldn’t see him clearly either. He tried rubbing his eye sockets, but more tears would escape him. His voice sounded angry.

“I...I don’t know. I...”A hiccuped escaped him and tried to speak again, but found he couldn’t. He closed his eyes tight and hung his head down.

He didn’t really know how to describe his day. It just didn’t...go well. Nothing was going his way today, and when he tried to find the bright side of things like he always does...

He couldn’t.

“wanna talk about it?”

He wanted to. He really wanted to, but at the same time he didn’t. He didn’t want his bad day to be their bad day. But they could change his bad day into a good one. Maybe? He wasn’t sure.

“talk later?”

Papyrus took in a shaky breath, and exhaled slowly. He nodded. Later sounded good to him.

He suddenly felt an arm wrap around his shoulder and looked up just in time to see Edge pull him close to his side. With his other hand, Edge grabbed his skull and rested it upon his shoulder.

“KEEP CRYING, BUT IF AN OUNCE OF SNOT GETS ON ME, I’LL DUST YOU.”Edge commanded and gently rubbed his skull, and Papyrus couldn’t help but obey him.

His eye sockets flooding with more and more tears. At some point during his sobbing, Slim wrapped an arm around his waist and laid his head next to his, and with his other hand, he rubbed his back gently in smooth circles.

After what felt like hours, Papyrus stopped crying. He sniffled a bit and a hiccup escaped him here and there, but he did feel somewhat better. All that crying actually made him feel a bit better...odd.

He also felt really tired.

He looked up to see Edge’s clothes shoulder completely soaked in his tears...and snot.

Uh oh.

“WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT GETTING SNOT ALL OVER ME?”

Papyrus looked up to see Edge give him a stern look on his face. He gulped nervously.

“You’ll...dust me?”

“CORRECT.”Edge says as he stops rubbing his skull gently and flicks him on the forehead.

He honestly expected it to hurt, but Papyrus didn’t feel like Edge even tried.

“THERE. YOU’RE DUST.”

Papyrus furrowed his bone brows at him with a confused look.

“we must lay his dust to rest, edge.”

Papyrus yelped as they were suddenly transported to his room. Edge and Slim realeased their grip on him and stood him up, unmade his bed, and laid him down on his back. With one quick motion, the two covered him up to his chin in his blankets, and tucked him in.

Papyrus opened his mouth to ask what was happening, but a yawn came out of him instead. Slim reached a hand up to his eye sockets and gently closed them for him. His bed felt so good right now.

And a nap sounded good, too. Which was strange because he rarely took naps...or get tired so easily.

Who knew crying was exhausting?

As he was beginning to feel himself drift away into slumber, he felt a pair of hands gently wipe away any tears left on his face.

They were Edge’s hands.

He could tell because he heard him mumbling how pathetic his tear stained face looked.

Then he felt another pair of hands fluff his pillow.

Those hands belonged to Slim.  
His hands smelled like smoke from his cigarettes.

As those pairs of hands left him he faintly heard the sound of their footsteps leaving his room, and the door shutting softly. Papyrus smiled to himself a bit as he suddenly remembered what their type of caring was called.

Tough love.

It was definitely a...special way of caring, but strangely enough it was exactly what he needed today. He buried himself more into his blanket and pillow as he sighed somewhat happily. He felt himself drifting more and more into slumberland, but couldn’t help but think one last thought before going there.

‘I knew there was a bright side...thank you, Slim...thank you, Edge.’

* * *

 Just outside of Papyrus’ bedroom, Slim and Edge leaned against the wall beside his door. They heard the faint sound of snoring behind it.

“he’s asleep.”

Edge hummed in acknowledgement.

“didn’t think someone like him could have a bad day.”

Edge nodded.”ME NEITHER.”

“...we’re dusting whoever’s the cause of it, right?”

“OF COURSE.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not sure if the way I wrote tough love is right or not, but there’s different ways of expressing it I guess.


End file.
